1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a parking assist apparatus and method for a vehicle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As a vehicles recently has been positioned as a necessity of people in the modern world, newly released and run vehicles have rapidly increased. Due to this, various social problems such as a traffic jam and a parking problem have occurred.
In particular, the parking problem is very serious. As vehicles increase in a limited region, town and state, it is unavoidable that a parking space should be reduced. In order to solve such a problem of insufficient parking spaces, a parking section divided to allow one vehicle to be parked therein becomes narrower and narrower.
In addition, even in a space where parking sections are not divided, it is unavoidable that an inter-vehicle space is narrowed when a number of vehicles are parked together therein. In such a case, there is a problem in that it is difficult for a driver to directly drive so as to park a vehicle in a narrow parking space or to drive the vehicle out from the narrow parking space while looking for an obstacle around the vehicle with his/her eyes.
Thus, a technology, which has been developed and has become commercially available, installs a parking assist system which performs automatic parking in a vehicle so as to automatically park the vehicle into a parking space or drive the vehicle out of the parking space. The parking assist system automatically steers the vehicle when the vehicle is parked into or driven out from the space so as to assist in parking the vehicle in the parking space or driving the vehicle out of the parking space. Such a parking assist system may be referred to as a Smart Parking Assist System (SPAS), an Intelligent Parking Assist System (IPAS), an Advanced Parking Guidance System (APAS), or the like.
A parking assist function may be generally classified into a function of parking a vehicle in a parking space (“parking function”) and a function of driving a vehicle out of a parking space (“driving-out function”). As an example, the parking function may be executed in a state where starting is turned ON (IGN ON) and may be selected when the gear is positioned at “Drive” (“D”). Meanwhile, the driving-out function may be executed when a vehicle speed is equal to or lower than a reference speed in the IGN ON state and the gear is positioned at “Neutral” (“N”) or “Park” (“P”).
Meanwhile, in a situation in which a vehicle is stopped due to grid lock on a road or a red light, when a driver inadvertently pushes a button which operates the parking assist system, a driving-out system may be operated. If the driver drives the vehicle again while the driving-out system is operated, an automatic control of the driving-out function may be initiated and the steering wheel may be automatically steered, causing a dangerous situation.